Saturday, December 18, 2010

BBC: The Freedom Association is ‘a posher version of the BNP’

David Baddiel was interviewed earlier today by Alan Davies on BBC Radio 5, to talk about his new film The Norris McWhirter Chronicles, to be screened in the ‘Little Cracker’s season of festive films over the Christmas period.

The Norris McWhirter Chronicles covers a visit Norris made to David Baddiel’s school, the Haberdashers' Aske's Boys' School in Elstree, in 1978. Roy Castle’s Record Breakers was at the height of its popularity, and the latest guest speaker at teenage David Baddiel’s school is none other than editor of the Guinness Book of Records, Norris McWhirter, played (by all accounts very creditably) by Alistair McGowan.

But during the Radio 5 interview is an appalling misrepresentation by Baddiel of The Freedom Association, which Norris established in 1975 with his twin brother Ross and Viscount De L'Isle. The Association is at the forefront of campaigning in defence of personal and political freedom.

Yet Baddiel refers to it as ‘a very, very right-wing, kind of sub-BNP, slightly posher version of the BNP organisation’ (Radio 5 1h 23m in).

Alan Davies then proceeds to conjecture if Norris McWhirter was ‘a brown shirt with Mosley’

‘Brown-shirt’ is neo-Nazi vocabulary: Mosley’s British Union of Fascists instituted a corps of black-uniformed paramilitary stewards, nicknamed blackshirts, which is probably what Alan Davies meant.

Nazi brown or Fascist black, this slander of Norris McWhirter is quite outrageous.

But maybe it is quite unsurprising coming from the BBC which even its own Director General admits is guilty of ‘massive’ left-wing bias.

Perhaps in Luvviedom, TFA is akin to the BNP.

But Norris was in showbiz through three decades, working tirelessly for the BBC on Record Breakers until the death of Roy Castle in 1994.

One might expect the BBC at least to honour his memory and respect his magnificent contribution to the programme, not to mention show a little respect for his remarkable achievement in co-founding the Guinness Book of Records.

But here we have Alan Davies and David Baddiel trashing the honour and reputation of one of the nation’s finest.

It is easy to speak ill of the dead.

When he passed away, The Freedom Association was inundated with messages of sympathy and tributes to the man, his life and his work:

Baroness Thatcher: “…He was a man who cherished freedom and was never afraid to speak out when he felt that it was in danger. He championed its cause throughout his life, taking up alone the challenge which he and Ross had shared. Whether it was in defying over-mighty Soviet Communism or in trimming the power of local bureaucrats, Norris was tireless. He saw the dangers to the individual whenever the state, or other large institutions, intruded further into peoples lives – eroding responsibility and fostering dependency. Above all he was always on his guard against systems, and their proponents, who sought to lessen freedom. Truly, he was a valiant warrior, and life is diminished with his passing.”

Andrew Roberts: “The great 19th century historian Lord Acton was going to write A History of Liberty, but died before he completed the research. One day it shall be written, and when it is a golden, glorious chapter will be devoted to what Norris McWhirter did for all of us.”

Christopher Gill: “…Norris was a man of great courage, enormous integrity and a fearless campaigner for individual freedom and national independence. He was a man of principle, a truly honourable man but above all else, a committed and sincere patriot. As a champion of freedom he was a beacon of hope whose sudden and unexpected extinguishment will be an irreplaceable loss to the the cause for which he gave so much.”

Gerald Howarth MP: “…Norris's determined, unwavering and principled stand in defence of the ancient liberties of Her Majesty's subjects was an inspiration to all who shared his love of freedom. His campaign to protect the rights of the British people against those who would hand power to others on the Continent played a part in shifting public opinion.”

Robert Halfon MP: “A great and kind man who did so much for the cause of freedom and fought so hard to stop Britain being submerged into a European superstate.”

Professor Patrick Minford CBE: “…Norris was one of the earliest to understand the threat to the interests of the UK and indeed those of ordinary Europeans from the European Union and its burgeoning bureaucracy. He worked with others in the early 1990s to spread understanding among MPs and the general public about the economic and political threat. He took the government to court for its actions in betraying British sovereignty. He was a pioneer in the ongoing endeavour to turn the tide against this dangerous project, once thought ‘inevitable’ but now increasingly seen as seriously damaging in the absence of a massive change of EU policies.”

Roger Foster OBE: “…As a founder member of the Freedom Association, working with Norris to set up our own charter I remember so well his determination that the Magna Carta had to be the basis of our charter for the rights of the British people to live their own lives in the way they wanted and not be controlled by rules and regulations. His equal determination through the Association, was to try to bring the government closer to and more understanding of the people who had elected them to govern….”

John Redwood MP: “…he will best be remembered for his courageous fight to maintain real democracy in Britain. Norris was never too busy to take up a cause. He fought against abuses of power here in Britain and for the rights of Soviet dissidents. He fought against the signing of the Maastricht Treaty and against subliminal advertising. As the head of the National Association for Freedom, he supported parents who were desperately trying to keep grammar schools going and he took up the cases of workers who were sacked because they refused to join a union. Norris richly deserved the CBE awarded to him when Margaret Thatcher became Prime Minister.”

And there are very many more tributes to Norris McWhirter on The Freedom Association website. He was not only a good man: he was tenacious for liberty, principled for freedom, a distinguished all-rounder; he was great.

Yet despite all this praise, respect and reverence, the BBC is content to broadcast an interview in which he is tarnished with neo-Nazi and fascist allusions, and in which The Freedom Association is portrayed as BNP-lite.

His Grace is really quite outraged, and would like to encourage his readers and communicants to make a formal complaint to the BBC, demanding a full apology for Alan Davies' slander of Norris McWhirter and David Baddiel's quite outrageous and unwarranted attack on The Freedom Association.

53 Comments:

Speaking of Sir Oswald let us not forget Mandelson's sidekick Benjamin Wegg-Prosser whose grandfather stood in the East End as a BUF candidate.

As for the Freedom Association it did some good but comparing it to a political party like the BNP which did not exist back then is fatuous....still we know what Labour looked like back then with Boris Ponamaryev of the Central Committee of the CPSU addressing Comrades

I always thought McWhirter was on another planet when it came to his political views. Not sure that the Freedom Association was fascist but a posh version of the BNP, yeah, that sounds about right actually!

Why do you think this has anything to do with the BBC? Surely Messrs Baddiel & Davies are allowed to say what they want, form their own (no matter how ill-judged) opinions and air them? Or would His Grace rather have a Political Police monitor everything said by journalists & commentators to ensure it conformed with conservative views?As it happens, the TFA were very controversial during apartheid South Africa and the mud from then still sticks. There's been a lot of rumbling about BBC 'bias' from the conservative end of the spectrum recently and it's pure bunkum, the alternatives being a limit on journalists with their own opinions, or a fox-news style 'counterweight'.As it is, I think the BBC are often guilty of a conservative bias, but I suppose the conservative complainants don't notice that do they?

I agree with much of this blog and perhaps these 'jokers; were cofusing the TFA with the EDA.

An area that cannot be hidden away though is the TFA's threat in 1988 to prevent the BBC broadcasting the Nelson Mandela concert - wathched by an audience of 600 million. A short sighted and mistaken position on South Africa discredited both Norris McWhirter, MBE, and the TFA.

Pity some will remember him for this and perhaps it's why he is viewed with suspicion.

I quite understand your graces outrage , and this trashing totally misses , what leaders came together under this banner , it may even be said that the soviet era dissolved because of it .Still what would you expect from a lefty era comedy guru who moved into football . Perhaps not praise but this does not explain the Freedom asscoaition main thrust , nor it seems any belief why , if he had thought about it , a little more gratitude for a past stance that allowed a great freedom to happen .

When did I say I revered Mandela? You're jumping to conclusions. Whether I like Mandela and the ANC or not would you accept, in principle, that a freedom movement,backed by the majority of a nation, can be legitimate? There are plenty of examples down through history - Google them!

In 1983, the time of the bombing, Mandela had been in prison for 20 years! The attack was authorised by Oliver Tambo.

Mandela has received more than 250 awards, including the 1993 Nobel Peace Prize.

Do try to get your basic facts right before you accuse someone of being unthinking!

The attack WAS authorised by Mandela. I know this because he has proclaimed it so in his, ahem, 'autobiography'. Try to get your facts right before you accuse someone of not having their facts right.

Yasser Arafat also received the Nobel prize for peace, and he was a real nice guy too. Obama won as well, for doing precisely nothing, other than being what the left perceives as black. Leave it a few decades and Mssrs McGuinness and Adams will no doubt have one too.

It's true you never explicitly revered Mandela, I just deduced so from your waffle concerning his crappy concert. So I guess you'll join me in condemning this murderous criminal.

English Viking said,"Obama won as well, for doing precisely nothing, other than being what the left perceives as black."

Wrong again. He increased more tension and spread wider aggression overtly and had to swallow his own words about the illegal 'exclusive for the ex- slaves of the Pharoah' housing in Palestine when Netanyahu gave him the Chosen People's frown.

Yes Mandela did authorise Bombings, But as John Redwood praised Mcwqirter for Democracy, remember the Freedom assocation was against Mandela and the ANC, who were fighting for democracy that Mcquirter was agaisnt, so maybe compairing the Freeedom Assoc to the fascists isn't that far off

'Whilst understanding the ideological slant within the BBC could I please be made to understand the basis of Baddiels comments on the probity of Mr Mc Whirter with reference to an assumption that he was a 'nazi/blackshirt etc etc ad-nauseum....(and presumably, therefore, a racist god forbid etc ad-nauseum.)

It could legitimately be said that one mans' nazi is another mans' hero( to paraphrase) after all wasn't good old 'uncle Joe' Stalin just such a nice chappie (well, not a nazi of course but just as murderous) according to the BBC during the Second World War in the fight against Hitler?. Time's Man of the Year 1942 indeed to prove it.

As was Hitler the Time's Man of the Year for 1938 but move along, nothing to see here.

I say the above in full recognition of the absolutely essential role 'uncle' Joe played in the defeat of the very ideology that Baddiel is suggesting Norris McWhirter was allied to.

This is a scurrilous attack on a fine man and is grossly offensive in it's nature.

Having reflected overnight on the dilema's about civil protest and 'freedom fighters', a new phenomena to me, I have to say it is difficult to justify killing and maiming innocent victims even if it a consequence of fighting for a just cause. The ends can never justify the means.

In South Africa the cause seems to me to have been just but, perhaps, not the means. However, if a regime is wilfully repressing and killing its people, instead of serving its populace, leaving no avenues open for change, what are its people to do?

I have not read Mr Mandela's auto biology but on release from prison did he renounce violence? Did he not adopt another route to achieve justice?

How is the world to achieve peace and justice? I'm not sure it ever can. Nevertheless it is the responsibility of its leaders and everyone to strive towards this in the face of evil. So much evil abounds today and so few people appear concerned.

It was the same four centuries ago when the Church emroiled itself in the politics of Europe thinking this was to route to salvation.

Armed 'revolution' is not God's way as Saint Peter was advised when an act of injustice was perpetrated against Christ by Rome and Israel. Sometimes one cannot render under to Ceasar the things that belong to God. The early martyrs testify to this.

I was judged a traitor because I refused to sign an oath of allegiance requiring me to surrender body and soul to the Crown. Rising against my King, Henry, never occurred to me. He was placed in a position of lawful authority over his subjects and is answerable to God for his actions.

Norris McWhirter was a noble and honourable man and a servant of truth as he saw it.

Like any mortal man he may or may not have been right about everything, who knows, but he stood up for what he believed and used legitimate channels to promote his arguments. So far as I am aware he was a gentleman and a scholar, using reason and persuasion as his method.

Obiter on the topic of Acton, of whom Roberts said "The great 19th century historian Lord Acton was going to write A History of Liberty, but died before he completed the research."

"It is possible to take too many notes; the task of sorting, filing andassimilating them can take for ever, so that nothing gets written. The awful warning is Lord Acton, whose enormous learning never resulted in the greatwork the world expected of him. An unforgettable description of Acton's Shropshire study after his death in 1902 was given by Sir Charles Oman.

There were shelves and shelves of books, many of them with pencilled notes in the margin. `There were pigeonholed desks and cabinets with literally thousands of compartments into each of which were sorted little white slips with references to some particular topic, so drawn up (so far as I could see) that no one but the compiler could easily make out the drift.' And there were piles of unopened parcels of books, which kept arriving, even after his death. `For years apparently he had been endeavouring to keep up with everything that had been written, and to work their results into his vast thesis.' `I never saw a sight,' Oman writes, `that more impressed on me the vanity of human life and learning.'"

"There's been a lot of rumbling about BBC 'bias' from the conservative end of the spectrum recently and it's pure bunkum, the alternatives being a limit on journalists with their own opinions, or a fox-news style 'counterweight'."There is a much better alternative: simply abolish the licence fee and leave the BBC to make its own way.

It will create more interest, Your Grace. The TFA should be proud of its association with Britain's bravest political party who will not run and hide under their beds whenever some smug stinking hypocritical liberal whispers "racist" in their ear, unlike the lily-livered Tories and UKIP.

Let us face the fact that middle class activists are almost without exception feeble of spirit and feeble of mind.

The TFA and UKIP are mainly made up of the elderly while the BNP membership remains youthful and energetic, and are not too stuck up to do the bread and butter work of political activism, ie leafleting.

The strength of the British proletariat to fight the disgusting and evil LibLabCon is required when so many members of the bourgeoisie are are so easily contemptibly easily to intimidate.

The strength of the BNP lies in the fact that the typical member has already crossed the Rubicon of refusing to shut up even when they are intimidated socially and politically for speaking what they believe to be the truth.

No other party has this quality of courage and determination.

What good are these so-called libertarians and UKIP for when they don't even recognise totalitarian thoughtcrime legislation even after it has repeatedly kicked them in the head?

Is it because they are stupid or because they are scared?

How typical of the easily-frightened middle classes to start talking about "BNP scum" the moment they are accused of having similar policies.

Pathetic, dishonorable and contemptible.

The truth is that the white middle classes hate the BNP much much more than the BNP are said to hate non-whites.

It would appear that those who like to think of themselves as Traditional Conservatives are more than prepared to let their nation die of the class divisions they are so apparently proud to live under.

Is this yet another disgusting example of Christian hypocrisy?

The spinelessness, snobbery and stupidity of British men who wish to fight the LibLabCon has to be experienced to be believed.

Regardless of whatever you are proud to be, yet again you exhibit a certain schizophrenia purporting to be a political rationale! I cannot believe, even momentarilly, that the BNP would welcome your support, on anything!

Further, the British middle-classes are increasingly of a mind, with the BNP ... and when the day comes, there will be NO room for your torturous, and bizarre anti-Christian allegiances!

Only "slightly" posher? They should sue. And how many other known National Front donors did the BBC allow on air at all, never mind on children's television?

The Freedom Association was openly funded by apartheid South Africa, as much as anything else about as anti-British ideologically as it is possible to imagine. Just as the sectarian Left that is now a key part of our Political Class should have been made to move to a Communist country in order to see how their views on drug legalisation and the abolition of the age of consent went down there, so this sectarian Right that is now a key part of our Political Class should have been made to move to South Africa or to Pinochet's Chile in order to see how their views on drug legalisation and the abolition of the age of consent went down there, either.

Neither of them ever was, which may be why their views have never changed, and have now very largely been given effect. Roll on electoral reform, and primaries for the candidates to be submitted to the voters under the reformed electoral system.

The TFA (or the National Association for Freedom as it was then known) was not against democracy in South Africa, but against sanctions which, rightly or wrongly, it saw as counter-productive, and terrorism, which one hopes we all agree is wrong.

To tag McWhirter as a fascist is ignorant and lazy, and demonstrates a meek acceptance of the Fabian propaganda that has been the stock in trade of the BBC for decades, and for which it should be called out loudly and often.

Clare Khaw, if you believe the BNP, with its whole raft of statist, interventionist, authoritarian policies, will protect us from "totalitarian thoughtcrime legislation", I have a bridge you may want to buy.

I am, Your Grace, a patriot, middle class, white, a libertarian and proud.

Let us be clear about this, "Oswin" and "He's Spartacus": I do not expect there ever to be a BNP government. The most it can hope to do is put its policies on display so that eventually the ruling party will avail themselves of its more sensible ones, chief of which is to withdraw from the EU.

http://order-order.com/2009/09/29/exclusive-browns-gulags-for-slags-policy-taken-from-bnp/ is an interesting example of this phenomenon.

The other policies I approve of are

1. grammar schools

2. capital punishment

3. corporal punishment

4. government by referenda

5. the repeal of all totalitarain liberal THOUGHTCRIME anti-discrimination legislation (which I had naively imagined that all Libertarians would wish to repeal but which they are in fact either too scared or stupid to protest against)

While not having a racist bone in my body, I wish to make a principled stand for the right any group of people to exclude me (in the name of freedom of association) and the right of any group of people to discriminate against me (in the name of freedom of contract).

You will understand that I am in the course of establishing my reputation for being the first non-white Libertarian Nationalist (in the sense of supporting an ideology crafted to further the National Interest) who not only knows what the problems are, but the solutions too.

I remember the McWhirter twins from years ago; Ross was - if I remember correctly - assassinated by the IRA or some similar outfit from NI. He must have posed a terrible threat to them..

As for whether these gentlemen and the Freedom Association were fascists or not - well, if it comes from the BBC - and from some vacuous sleb, then it must be false, for precious little that is wholesome, fair or truthful is known to proceed from the halitosis-infected mouth of either the BBC or slebs, who delight to wallow in their formidable ignorance and employ it at every opportunity to platform their venal prejudices. Oops - I'm using ad hominem, aren't I? - Silly me. But I'm only a moggy..

Oh English Viking, I am fed up of telling people this, I live in London where the diversity mafia have spoon fed the masses to believe that old nelson mandella was a lovely man who was locked up for his skin colour, I remind them he was locked up for being a member of a terrorist organisation whom was involved in train bombings, he is stained in the blood of innocents, unlike martin luther king who was a man of peace. Thanks for pointing this out about mandella, it sickens me to see people especially these celebs falling over in worship when they meet him.

Since you seem to be so authoritative in your knowledge of Christian theology, I'll have to bow to your superior knowledge and forsake the historical theologians like Augustine, Luther, Calvin et alia and beat a path to your door instead. I'll bring my pals along too - we'll have a party. Incidentally, where in Holy Writ (ie the Bible) does it tell us that Mary was the Mother of God? Does the fact that she gave birth to the Christ mean that she had/has some stake in the Godhead? Sounds like some 'theotokos' heresy from the Council of Chalcedon to me..

The Koran takes its authority from the Torah and the Bible but denies the truth contained in either.

Surah 5:68 - Say: "O People of the Book! ye have no ground to stand upon unless ye stand fast by the Law (Torah), the Gospel (Injeel), and all the revelation that has come to you from your Lord."

Surah 29:46 Muslims are told by Allah, not to question the authority of the scriptures of the Christians, saying, "And dispute ye not with the People of the Book, but say, "We believe in the revelation which has come down to us and in that which came down to you; Our Allah and your Allah is one;"(end of quote)

(Even the briefest glimpse of the Bible and the Koran will tell you that the Allah of Islam and the God of the Bible are not the same person!)

The scriptures bear witness that Christ is God!(See below)(carm.org/100-truths-about-jesus )

As a long time collaborator and friend of the late Norris McWhirter I am appalled but not surprised at the vicious lies about a good democratic Briton by the cowardly fascist left, personified by David Baddiel.

Norris and Ross fought against fascism and national socialism both during and after the war - whereas the BBC was one of the leading appeasers of the 1930s. Ross McWhirter was murdered by the National Socialists of the IRA - Norris referred to the loss of his twin as feeling "like an amputation".

Despite this, when I wrote to the Guardian arguing against an early form of the European Arrest Warrant which sought to take the IRA's Roisin MacCaliskey for trial in Germany without due process of British law, Norris joined me in signing the letter in her defence.

Norris's final years were devoted to fighting the destruction of our country,parliament and democracy on the altar of that European Union to which leading fascists and national socialists after the second world war gave their unswerving support (see my cd "The Nazis and Fascists who founded the European Union)

I think we all know where the true fascists operate in Britain - and those media outlets who give them free rein. But they would not have dared to slander Norris if he had been alive. That is the measure of this cowardly little journalist!

That is exactly what the grotesquely inappropriately named Freedom Association were and are. They are not interested in the freedom of the individual from the tyranny of the corporatocracy or the freedom of individuals to engage in democratic trade unionism. They exist only the preserve the wealth of the narrowest section of society, the elite that parasitically feeds off the rest and they dress it up as some noble act of freedom fighting. Repulsive.

About His Grace:

Archbishop Cranmer takes as his inspiration the words of Sir Humphrey Appleby: ‘It’s interesting,’ he observes, ‘that nowadays politicians want to talk about moral issues, and bishops want to talk politics.’ It is the fusion of the two in public life, and the necessity for a wider understanding of their complex symbiosis, which leads His Grace to write on these very sensitive issues.

Cranmer's Law:

"It hath been found by experience that no matter how decent, intelligent or thoughtful the reasoning of a conservative may be, as an argument with a liberal is advanced, the probability of being accused of ‘bigotry’, ‘hatred’ or ‘intolerance’ approaches 1 (100%).”

Follow His Grace on

The cost of His Grace's conviction:

His Grace's bottom line:

Freedom of speech must be tolerated, and everyone living in the United Kingdom must accept that they may be insulted about their own beliefs, or indeed be offended, and that is something which they must simply endure, not least because some suffer fates far worse. Comments on articles are therefore unmoderated, but do not necessarily reflect the views of Cranmer. Comments that are off-topic, gratuitously offensive, libelous, or otherwise irritating, may be summarily deleted. However, the fact that particular comments remain on any thread does not constitute their endorsement by Cranmer; it may simply be that he considers them to be intelligent and erudite contributions to religio-political discourse...or not.

The Anglican Communion has no peculiar thought, practice, creed or confession of its own. It has only the Catholic Faith of the ancient Catholic Church, as preserved in the Catholic Creeds and maintained in the Catholic and Apostolic constitution of Christ's Church from the beginning.Dr Geoffrey Fisher, Archbishop of Canterbury, 1945-1961

British Conservatism's greatest:

The epithet of 'great' can be applied only to those who were defining leaders who successfully articulated and embodied the Conservatism of their age. They combined in their personal styles, priorities and policies, as Edmund Burke would say, 'a disposition to preserve' with an 'ability to improve'.

I am in politics because of the conflict between good and evil, and I believe that in the end good will triumph.Margaret Thatcher, Baroness Thatcher LG, OM, PC, FRS.(Prime Minister 1979-1990)

We have not overthrown the divine right of kings to fall down for the divine right of experts.Harold Macmillan, 1st Earl of Stockton, OM, PC.(Prime Minister 1957-1963)

Socialism is a philosophy of failure, the creed of ignorance, and the gospel of envy, its inherent virtue is the equal sharing of misery.Sir Winston Churchill, KG, OM, CH, TD, FRS, PC (Can).(Prime Minister 1940-1945, 1951-1955)

I am not struck so much by the diversity of testimony as by the many-sidedness of truth.Stanley Baldwin, 1st Earl Baldwin of Bewdley, KG, PC.(Prime Minister 1923-1924, 1924-1929, 1935-1937)

If you believe the doctors, nothing is wholesome; if you believe the theologians, nothing is innocent; if you believe the military, nothing is safe.Robert Cecil, 3rd Marquess of Salisbury, KG, GCVO, PC.(Prime Minister 1885-1886, 1886-1892, 1895-1902)

I am a Conservative to preserve all that is good in our constitution, a Radical to remove all that is bad. I seek to preserve property and to respect order, and I equally decry the appeal to the passions of the many or the prejudices of the few.Benjamin Disraeli KG, PC, FRS, Earl of Beaconsfield.(Prime Minister 1868, 1874-1880)

Public opinion is a compound of folly, weakness, prejudice, wrong feeling, right feeling, obstinacy, and newspaper paragraphs.Sir Robert Peel, Bt.(Prime Minister 1834-1835, 1841-1846)

I consider the right of election as a public trust, granted not for the benefit of the individual, but for the public good.Robert Jenkinson, 2nd Earl of Liverpool.(Prime Minister 1812-1827)

Necessity is the plea for every infringement of human freedom. It is the argument of tyrants; it is the creed of slaves.The Rt Hon. William Pitt, the Younger.(Prime Minister 1783-1801, 1804-1806)